X-Men and the Micronauts #4

"Doppelganger!"
Published April 1984
Writers: Chris Claremont and Bill Mantlo
Penciler: Jackson "Butch" Guice
Inker: Bob Wiacek
Cover Artists: Jackson "Butch" Guice and Bob Wiacek

What's Going On?
At the end of last issue, The Entity took control of Xavier's body, while trapping Xavier in The Entity's body (which is dying).  Meanwhile, in the Microverse, the X-Men and Micronauts are in the process of escaping from the dungeons of The Entity, while Baron Karza (trapped in the body of Kitty Pryde) plans to kill both teams of heroes.  As this is happening, Kitty Pryde (trapped in the body of Baron Karza) makes the decision to attack the planet that The Entity is on (as are the X-Men and Micronauts, for that matter) with Baron Karza's forces.  Her plan is to destroy the entire planet to stop The Entity's ruthlessness, even at the cost of her friends and countless innocents.

But that was last issue!  As this issue opens, The Entity (in his Xavier flesh suit) sets out to control the New Mutants, as he successfully did to the X-Men and Micronauts in the Microverse.  He does this with ease.  His next plan is to use Cerebro to amplify his abilities to the point where he can destroy the entire Microverse (with his enemies inside it). 

While this is happening, the X-Men and Micronauts spoil Karza-Kitty's attempt to murder them all; in the process, they encounter Kitty (in Karza's body) and Xavier (in The Entity's body).  After some confusion, every body-switched person's true identity is revealed and everyone agrees to team up against The Entity.  The group manages to avoid The Entity's Cerebro-enhanced attack on the Microverse and makes their way to the X-Men's universe (Earth-616) to battle The Entity; unfortunately, after successfully escaping the Microverse, both the X-Men and the Micronauts are the size of action figures on Earth.  The New Mutants (under the sway of The Entity) attack the tiny heroes; with The Entity distracted by the battle, Xavier launches a psychic attack.  Xavier tries to resume control of his body and mind, and threatens to kill his body before allowing The Entity to continue. 

The Entity believed Xavier capable of this, and chose to take his consciousness back to his own body...which had just died.  With nowhere to go, The Entity ceased to exist and the battle stopped.  Kitty and Baron Karza managed to switch their minds back to the correct bodies, and the Micronauts used science(-ish) to enlarge the X-Men to their natural size before returning to the Microverse.  All's well that ends well...except for all those that died in the Microverse at the hands of The Entity.

Sub-Plots, oh the Sub-Plots!
- Lockheed can sense the presence of Xavier's invisible astral projection.  So that's weird.

Writing!
The summary above may have given you a clue, but this is a plot-heavy issue where a lot of ridiculous things have to get wrapped up.  I would feel sorry for Mantlo and Claremont, but they painted themselves into this corner, so I'm glad they were the ones that set everything back to normal in this issue.  It was their mess, so it was only right for them to clean it up.  Well, as "clean" as a kid's comic with a hidden dick joke can be.

Art!
Like the previous three issues, the artwork from Guice and Wiacek is serviceable, but not terribly pretty to look at.  There are a few panels that made me wonder if maybe multiple inkers worked on this issue --- this panel featuring Dani Moonstar seems unlike anything else in the comic ---

but I don't see anything online to back up this notion, so I guess Guice and Wiacek were just trying a few new things here and there.  Art highlights for me include a new costume for Kitty in what I think was supposed to be Baron Karza's color scheme...

...and this panel of the action figure-sized X-Men fighting the New Mutants. 

Retrospectively Amusing:
- Whatever is going on here (psychic sexual assault?) is gross.  It's worth pointing out that The Entity can (and has) bent heroes to his will without his "psychic fingertips play[ing] a sensual caress" with any of them.

- I love that, when possessed by The Entity, the visual indication that Sunspot has become fierce and savage is to...give him Wolverine's haircut?

- I love the nonsense pseudoscience used in this issue.  There are many instances of it (How do the X-Men regain their full size again?  How did the Micronauts return home?), but my favorite is this, the power of song:

- Last issue showed us that The Entity has the ability to raise the dead with no ill effects.  I had assumed that this would be used to make up for all the people in the Microverse killed by The Entity and the X-Men and Micronauts under his sway.  As the issue closes, Xavier states that he wished he could atone for The Entity's crimes, which could have easily led to someone saying, "Actually, maybe you *can* help..."  What actually happened was nothing.  The X-Men killed a bunch of Microverse people, Xavier's dark side killed millions in the Microverse, and two students were basically sexually assaulted by their trusted teacher.  The repercussions for all of this?  None, which is hilarious (in the bad way).  But at least Xavier takes the time to explain the ending and completely shrug off The Entity's crimes!

Worth Noting:
- The Micronaut's sentient ship, Bioship, dies in this issue.